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I was actually planning on getting Neverworld Wake from the library, but every time I looked for it (after checking the online catalogue) it wasn’t there. I’d pushed it onto the TBR backburner when Charlotte sent me a copy for my birthday and I was suddenly grateful the library hadn’t had a copy after all – I’d only have had to buy a copy anyway. It’s that sort of book; a book you need to own.

Plot summary: Five friends – the beautiful elite at their exclusive prep school – reunite a year after graduation. After a night out, they narrowly avoid a collision with a car on a deserted road. Back at the mansion belonging to one of the girls, a storm rages and a mysterious man knocks on the door, announcing something world-shattering. The friends must make a choice: one of them will live, and the rest will die. And the decision must be unanimous.

So begins the Neverworld Wake. The nightmare. The nothingness. Time backbends and they are fated to repeat that day, but fears are now physical and memories come alive in horrifying ways. How will they vote? And will they be able to escape the Neverworld?

Rating for Neverworld Wake: * * * * *

I knew that I was going to love this book by the time we were about three chapters in. It’s a complete morbid mind-fuck with creepy strangers and shifting time loops. Nothing says, ‘this book is made for Hanna’ quite like that winning combination.I can pinpoint the very quote that made me realise I was going to love this book and it was this one:

“Each of you is, at present, lying kinda sorta dead on the side of a coastal road. This is due to a recent head-on collision with one Mr Howard Heyward, age fifty-eight, of two hundred eighty-one Admiral Road, South Kingstown, who was driving a Chevrolet Kodiak tow truck. Time is standing still. It has become trapped inside an eighth of a second like a luna moth inside a mason jar. There is a way out, of course. There is one means by which the moth can escape and time can fly irrevocably free. Each of you must vote during the last three minutes of every wake. You must choose the single person among you who will survive.”

This isn’t some kitchy, cute Groundhog Day type thing.

But it’s not too teenager-ified. That was my fear; that Neverworld Wake would degrade into five teenagers bickering about who should survive for 350 pages. It’s not like that at all. Instead, they each have their need to be chosen at the back of their minds constantly and everything they do is a way to manipulate each other. It’s sneaky and clever and dark.

These five teenagers are trapped for a long time; the narrator doesn’t know how long, but it’s implied that it’s centuries. The time changes them as people – they learn new skills but also start to slowly descend into madness.

The ongoing experience of Recurring goes against the very heart of being human, and it is – I will tell you this without flinching – unbearable. The mind rages trying to disprove it. When it can’t, the brain breaks down with shocking ease. The psyche is fragile. It is a child’s sand castle in an incoming tide.

It’s written well. And I don’t just mean ‘…for YA.’ It’s written well, and at times it’s very poetic.

The slight negative, and why I’m willing to overlook it.

My only complaint would be that there are a few overlooked mistakes. They’re not huge and they’re not central to the plot, but if I can spot them during a first read-through, then surely an editor could have as well. It’s little things, like when all the characters state that they’ve never tried to commit suicide, but it told us several chapters back that one of them had. I actually thought at the time that it was an intentional plot point, that he was lying, but no – just a mistake. It happens a few times.

I also don’t really understand how or why it’s decided that investigating their friend’s death the previous year would help them with the vote. It’s fine, it was easy to get on board with it, but I didn’t see the thought process.

We are all anthologies. We are each thousands of pages long, filled with fairy tales and poetry, mysteries and tragedy, forgotten stories in the back no one will ever read.

However. Whilst this would normally result in losing a good star or two from a rating, I just couldn’t do that with Neverworld Wake. This book kept me awake at night. Partly because I kept imagining The Keeper (played by Cristoph Waltz) stood in the corner watching me, but mainly because I could not get it out of my head. I was lying there, tossing and turning, unable to stop trying to unravel it in my head and figure out where it was going to go. Any book that can do that to me doesn’t deserve less than 5 stars.

So, no, it’s not perfect. But surely the way a book makes you feel is more important than a few irrelevant plot holes? Admittedly, this is not my usual shtick and normally I’d be jumping up and down with rage and a red felt tip. But I kept having to put the book down to stare blankly into space, just to process, before I could pick it up again.

So I turned 29 and subsequently spent £90 on books. In one fell swoop. Well, two fell swoops, if you count buying six in the shop and then ordering a further seven on the train on the way home. Anyway, The City of Brass was one of them and it was the first one I picked up when I settled down to read my haul. Unfortunately, I’ve probably set myself up for failure because there’s no way the rest of them can be anywhere near as good as this.

Plot summary: Among the bustling markets of eighteenth century Cairo, the city’s outcasts eke out a living swindling rich Ottoman nobles and foreign invaders alike.

But alongside this new world the old stories linger. Tales of djinn and spirits. Of cities hidden among the swirling sands of the desert, full of enchantment, desire and riches. Where magic pours down every street, hanging in the air like dust.

Many wish their lives could be filled with such wonder, but not Nahri. She knows the trades she uses to get by are just tricks and sleights of hand: there’s nothing magical about them. She only wishes to one day leave Cairo, but as the saying goes…

Be careful what you wish for.

Rating: * * * * *

The story starts in very late 18th Century Egypt, right after the invasion of Napoleon. Fortunately, you need absolutely zero historical knowledge as the magical hijinks kick in before too long, and we’re whisked off on a wonderful journey that never mentions Napoleon again.

I keep typing and deleting, and typing and deleting, as I try to work out which aspect of this story to rave about first. Let’s start with the plot then, as I’ve touched on it already. It’s pretty amazing, to be honest. I wouldn’t say it’s 100% unique, as djinn, ifrit, Solomon, etc, are all part of Middle Eastern mythology and have therefore been used in countless other works of fiction before this one. That said, I’ve never seen so much effort put into a story before. There’s a lot going on here.

The narratives alternate (more or less) between Nahri, an Egyptian orphan of unknown heritage, whisked away by a djinn she accidentally summons, and Prince Ali (…of Akhbar!? I’ve been singing that song for days now), the devoutly religious second son of the monarch of Daevabad. Their ‘voices’ are sufficiently different to keep the reader occupied, and whilst I’d say that I preferred Nahri’s chapters, there wasn’t really much in it.

There are multiple different plotlines – Nahri’s heritage, a looming rebellion, Dava’s past and his true loyalties, and Ali’s disillusion with the power of the ruling elite. Unusually, I was equally interested in all of it, and that’s down to the skill with which each strand is woven. I’ve read reviews that say The City of Brass is slow to start, and I can understand that. It is, sort of. But I didn’t really notice until this was pointed out to me, as I was so wrapped up in the lore and the world-building.

Ah yes, the world-building. Maybe I should have started with that. It’s incredible. On her website, S.A. Chakraborty mentions that she’s ‘a white convert’ to Islam and in a recent interview she states:

In Islam, we believe you have humans, angels, and all these other creatures, including the djinn, who are created from smoke or fire. They live alongside us, but you can’t see them, and they live for hundreds and thousands of years. As a history lover, I thought that was just great.

So the fundamental concept is based on Islamic lore, but that feels almost dismissive of the work that Chakraborty has put into The City of Brass. Not only does Daevabad feel real, I’m pretty sure at times I could almost see and hear it. There’s a whole world here, with different tribes, races, factions… I would honestly read any book set in or around Daevabad. The magic system is very in-depth and I absolutely adore it, on the face of it.

But that does lead me to my only criticism of The City of Brass. Even now I couldn’t confidently tell you which races are djinn, or the differences between the tribes, or who can become a slave and who can’t, etc. There’s a lot to take in, and I frequently had to read a page a couple of times before I could get it straight in my head. There is a glossary at the back, but it doesn’t really help that much. As an example, a ‘relic’ is discussed fairly early on (as an actual plot point, not an irrelevant aside) but it’s not explained until half the book later what a relic actually is. It didn’t spoil my enjoyment, but a little more explanation would have been very helpful; either that or a more comprehensive glossary.

The characters are impressively nuanced, for the most part. Ali, in particular, struggles with balancing his faith against his family, and his morals against his politics. It was occasionally a bit heavy-handed when he refers to ‘the right religion’ etc, but it was infrequent enough for me to overlook it. The real star of The City of Brass is Dava, however, the djinn who Nahri accidentally summons in the streets of Cairo. I love him. His personality is so complex that you’re never quite sure what’s going on; you don’t know what his motives are, how much of his power he’s hiding, why he’s so feared… He’s just sort of perfect, actually.

The ending is intense. It’s revealing and brutal and intense. It doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, not really, it’s not that cheap of a novel. However, it does raise questions that I want answered now. I checked when the next book is out and was disappointed to learn it’s not until January 2019. Then I checked again just in case I was wrong and it was actually earlier (I wasn’t and it’s not).

The City of Brass is honestly incredible. I’d be very, very surprised if it doesn’t make it onto my eventual Top Ten list at the end of the year. The world, the story, the characters are all masterfully crafted and I’ll be devouring anything that S.A. Chakraborty writes. If she wrote a cereal packet blurb, I’d read it.

Whilst I have kept up to date with my reading (more than up to date, actually), I did completely forget to post last week. Well, I say ‘forgot’ – I actually remembered after I’d already got settled in for the evening and I was too busy for the rest of week.

Anyway, my incompetance is nothing to do with the quality of The Count of Monte Cristo, which I love.

It’s all kicked off now! Dantes is in full on Revenge Mode and it is brutal. I can’t actually remember which bit was read in which week, so here is a muddled up brain dump:

So, essentially, he set up a young man with an inheritance, reputation, glory and a young wife… only to then inform the police just as he’s about to sign the marriage contract with said young wife. I mean, I’m not saying he didn’t deserve it, but… geez.

Albert is a bit obnoxious in these chapters. Charging around, challenging everybody to a duel before he even knows half of what’s going on.

One of the main four killed themselves, and Caderousse was murdered so it wasn’t him… Danglars? Was it Danglars? Oh shit, no, it was Fernand. I love how zero fuss is made of the fact that this important man killed himself. It’s mentioned as a sort of ‘a shot rang out’ aside and then never again.

Eugenie is a lesbian, right? I mean, that’s the inference, yes? I didn’t note down any quotes or page numbers, but there was something about ‘sappho.’ Also, she hasn’t been interested in any men and was very complimentary about the shape of Haidee’s silhouette in the opera.

I love the name Haidee, by the way. I have zero chance of convincing The Boy to let me call our first born this, however.

I did appreciate the scene where she waltzed into the Court room to denounce Fernand. I’d been hoping she’d have a larger role at some point.

Oh! My favourite bit from this whole fortnight is where Valentine is poisoned and it turns out Noirtier has been slipped her tiny doses of his medication to provide her with somewhat of an immunity. I thought that was very clever. It’s annoying me how nobody is accusing the right person though, despite how blindingly obvious it is.

It annoyed me when they seriously (albeit briefly) believed that Valentine was the culprit, however. Get a grip.

So who’s left? Fernand is dead, Caderousse is dead, Danglars is about to be ruined financially and Villefort’s whole household are dying off.

Hang on… Mercedes is a widow now. Where have she and Albert run off to, anyway? Surely the Count has them stashed away somewhere so he can marry her when all this is done?

Oh, but he’s just realised Haidee is quite nice. It reminds me of that scene in Goblet of Fire, where Ron goes “Hermione, you’re a girl…”

He’s got to end up with Mercedes though, surely? It’s the whole point of the book. Maybe Haidee will get jealous and throw a spanner in the works, although she doesn’t seem like that type.

I’m enjoying reading The Count of Monte Cristo – it’s a lot better than I’d expected. That said, I’ll still be glad when we’ve finished it and don’t have to remind myself that there’s something I should be reading at the start of every week!

But now, not only am I about to commence a week off, I’m at home alone and catching up on my blog. That’s partly because of the Tidy-a-thon currently being run by Book Dragons, but mostly because I feel unharried and unstressed for a change. And in that likely-to-be-brief reprieve, I feel like doing a tag.

This tag. So sue me.

1) Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2018

Well, you can click on a whole list of books that will answer this very question, but if I had to choose just one it would be The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. No question. That’s not because the rest of my reading was poor quality (quite the opposite, actually), but because it’s just that good a book.

It’s so different to anything I’ve ever read before and I really wish I could have the experience of reading it again for the first time. It has the feel of a 1930s Agatha Christie novel, but with added time travel, dimensions and a wonderful gothic vibe.

2) Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2018?

I don’t think I have too many to choose from this year, as far as sequels go. I haven’t progressed with that many series. Let’s have a look. Right, so it’s got to be Only Human (sequel to Sleeping Giants andWaking Gods), Thunderhead (sequel to Scythe) or The Voyage of the Basilisk (sequel to the Natural History of Dragons). Huh. Guess I’ve read more sequels than I though.

Whilst I did really like the latter (and Only Human was merely ‘alright’), it’s going to have to be Thunderhead. Admittedly a lot of this is riding on the ending, which was unbelievable and actually sort of ingenious. It wasn’t a perfect book as I’d have preferred more information around the actual gleanings, instead of pure over-arching plot, but I still loved it.

3) New Release You Haven’t Read Yet But Want To

Ha. I’m writing this the day after an epic book shopping spree in Waterstones and literally twenty minutes after my Amazon order arrived. I have just over £90 of new released to choose from. I do feel slightly abashed every time I remember this but, hey, birthday money, right?

However, the first book I picked up was The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty and logic dictates that this is therefore the book I wanted to read most. A close contender was The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang so I might start that next. Did I mention I have a whole week off ahead of me!?

4) Most Anticipated Released For The Second Half of the Year

Uhh… I’m not very good at keeping up with upcoming releases. I tend to just see a book pop up on blogs or in Waterstones and go ‘oh hey, that’s out now!’ Let’s see…

The Corset by Laura Pursell; that’ll do. I loved her more recent novel, The Silent Companions, which was creepy and compelling and very memorable. The plot to this one looks very similar. I was originally a bit judgey about this, but if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

There will be other books I’m looking forward to in 2018, but I won’t know what they are until I see them…

5) Biggest Disappointment

I actually have a few contenders for this one. I was disappointed by Strange the Dreamer, Children of Blood and Bone, Warcross…

The apple goes to Into the Drowning Deep, however. I can’t even think about this book without getting all squinty and cross. I had such high expectations for it, based on how much I loved the author’s previous books. I liked the general concept of this one, but unfortunately this book was marred by a somewhat boring plot, predictability, snail-like pacing and lengthy out-of-place lectures on diversity.

6) Biggest Surprise

For me, the biggest surprise this year so far has to be If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio. I’d borrowed it from the library based on a whim and one solitary review that I’d read, not expecting anything much.

It ended up being amazing, and in my staying up way past my bedtime to write a very gushing review of it. It’s somewhat like The Secret History, but only in that there’s a death within a group of academics. It’s otherwise not at all similar and comparing the two isn’t fair to either of them. It’s dark, gritty and the ending…. argh. You should definitely read this.

7) Favourite New Author

Whenever I have to answer this question, I only look at authors I have read two or more books from. Otherwise, how can you say they’re a favourite author if you’ve only experienced one example of their work?

The problem with that, is that it leaves me with only one answer for this question, which is Madeline Miller.

She is the only author I have read this year, whose work I really enjoyed and from whom I have read other books. I loved Song of Achilles and really liked Circe, so I’m not too disappointed with my answer really.

8) Newest Fictional Crush

And whenever I have to answer this question, I always feel compelled to point out that I’m an adult.

9) Newest Favourite Character

This definitely has to be Evelyn Hugo from The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I loved pretty much everything about this book, but I particularly liked Evelyn herself, who I pictured as a very chic Mary Berry. Possibly partly due to the fact that I was watching Bake-Off rereuns at the time.

I genuinely wish Evelyn was a real person so I could keep on reading more about her. Her life, fictional though it is, was fabulous and heart-breaking, with a few dashes of drama thrown in for good measure. I loved Evelyn like she was real.

10) Book That Made You Cry

I’m not sure if it made me cry, but the book that affected me the most emotionally was If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio. Now I think about it, however, it’s very possible that I did cry at that ending…

Not only is this book written very well, in a chatty and slightly dry tone that is very different to the author’s mystery novels, but she comes across as a very likeable person. She’s honest and self-deprecating, and I could easily have read another 200 pages of the same.

I finished this just happy that I’d had the opportunity to read it, and that I’d gotten to know this fascinating woman a tiny bit better.

12) Favourite Book to Film Adaptation

I strongly suspect that I have only seen/read one book that has been adapted this year. Let me go check…

Yep. I watched Ready Player One and it was alright. I mean, they changed a lot. The overarching plot was the same, but the various challenges were different and the characters all met up a lot earlier. Plus it irritated me that Artemis’ birthmark was barely there – you could hardly see it in some lights. I was also disappointed at the lack of references, although I understand that that’s a licensing issue.

13) What Book Do You Need To Read By The End Of The Year?

Umm. I’m not sure there are any that I need to read. I’m very much a mood reader, so I just tend to pick up whatever I feel like at the time.

I do want to get round to reading The Poppy War, however. It doesn’t matter if I don’t get round to it, but I would like to see what everybody is talking about. It’s supposed to be brutal and there was some talk about whether it’s classed as Young Adult or not, so I’m looking forward to it.

I think I’m probably sort-of middle ground when it comes to hype. If I see a book everywhere and it has glowing reviews, I might pick it up, but only if it looks interesting. I’m unlikely to bother with it purely on the basis of the hype, but I can be swayed into picking it up sooner than I may otherwise have done.

With that in mind, let’s have a look at the books that I’ve read which did live up to their hype.

Books That Lived Up To The Hype:

I don’t tend to read a whole lot of crime/thriller books, so I was slightly dubious when everybody else was reading and loving Gone Girl. I probably wouldn’t have picked it up if I hadn’t been hearing how amazing and how different it was. Luckily, in this case, I did sucuumb to the hype and Gone Girl ended up being totally different to anything I’d read before. I need to get round to reading Sharp Objects and… the other one soon, actually.

‘I’ve tried to think of something to balance out this slightly gushing review, but I genuinely can’t think of anything. I wanted to be reading it all the time, and when I couldn’t read it I was plotting desperately how I could get back to it. To sum-up, I can’t think of anybody who wouldn’t like this book.’

This one feels like a bit of a cheat as I actually read it before the hype (she says smugly). It seems to be everywhere now, which I’m glad of because it’s amazing, and because the author seems like a really nice person. Regardless of when I read it though, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is DEFINITELY worth every drop of all the hype it’s currently getting.

‘There are so many dark twists and turns, and ingenious plot points, that I genuinely gasped out loud on more than one occasion. It’s brutal and fascinating and does not go where you think it’s going to.’

Conversely, I was late to the party with The Song of Achilles. It was a good year or two after its publication before I finally picked it up, and that was after constant nagging from friends and the blogosphere. It was amazing and I cried on a train.

I’ve read Circe now as well and, while I enjoyed it, I don’t think it was as… emotionally affecting as this one.

‘I don’t think this review has actually helped much as I’d have achieved much the same thing by posting a picture of myself with a pathetic expression and a wad of tissue. If you take one thing away from this though, let it be that The Song of Achilles is far more than a dusty retelling of the Trojan War – it’s a beautiful and realistic story about a demi-god and a human, and their everlasting love.’

I think Scythe classes as being ‘hyped.’ I certainly seem to have seen it around quite a lot… Anyway, I loved it. I didn’t really know what it was about when it was first released, but as soon as I clicked that it was about the institutionalisation of death, I was on it. I loved the premise, the worldbuilding and the execution (ha!). I ordered and read Thunderhead pretty much the second I’d put Scythe down.

‘I was actually pretty happy with the ending as well. It’s a self-contained book, so there’s no cliff-hanger ending or loose threads. The next book, Thunderhead, is more of a sequel, I think. The same characters and the same world, but the plot has moved on slightly. That’s perfect in my eyes, and it makes a refreshing change. I’d ordered it before I’d even finished Scythe, naturally.’

Ohhhh, I loved this. I think I’d read this one at the very beginning of the hype as well. I’d actually bought it by accident, but it ended up being the best accident ever. The cover looks like it should be chick-lit, but it’s not. Instead it’s an Audrey Hepburn-esque figure recounting the story of her seven marriages with a few twists along the way. I didn’t want the book to finish and I could easily have read another two hundred pages of this.

‘There’s one colossal twist that’s revealed reasonably early on and I absolutely did not see it coming. It’s honestly a wonderful idea and it’s written so beautifully. It’s subtle and not at all sledge-hammery, and also quite believable for the time period.’

Alright, so I haaaaaaated Nevernight when I first started reading it. I nearly threw it across the room and it was touch and go as to whether I was going to DNF it or not. I just could not figure out what was going on, and the reason for all the hype eluded me completely. I’m not sure at what point it picked up, but I ended up falling in love with it completely. The hype was deserved, but I’m not sure why more reviews don’t mention the appalling beginning.

‘There’s a very dry and occasional sense of humour towards the later parts of the book and it’s really amusing at times. It’s mostly present in the footnotes and the conversations she has with her shadow. Again, I felt that this was a little forced at the beginning but by the end it had settled down a little and I really enjoyed it.’

I definitely read this one right in the middle of the hype, which I wholeheartedly agree was deserved. It’s not the concept that’s clever, the women being able to shoot lightning out of their fingers, but the way it’s executed is. The shift in gender perceptions, and the indignance of some men, is just… perfect. And upsetting. And thought-provoking. Arrrrrrrrgh. Read this please.

‘I almost cried at some parts. They really affected me and I read in a sort of stupor. The other parts that really made me sick were the reaction of the men to the new state of affairs. It’s actually quite well balanced, in that the male gender isn’t described to be generally stupid or or evil or even whiny, but the outward reaction of a few is fascinating and sickening. Much like the real world.’

And Books That Did Not:

8) Warcross by Marie Lu

This book was fine. The type of ‘fine’ where you can’t really talk about it without a one-sided shrug and a mild lip curl. It’s just that I’d heard an awful lot of hype about Warcross and I’ve more or less forgotten it already. The plot was alright, in a Ready Player One sort of way, but if the narrative mentioned that the main character had rainbow coloured hair ONE MORE TIME, I was going to chuck it out of the window.

There was also a significant amount of InstaLove and a good few plot holes that weren’t explained. I really wanted to like this book as the plot sounded so interesting, but it just didn’t live up to the hype.

9) Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Sigh. Here’s where this list gets controversial.

I’d actually had the foresight to borrow this book from a friend, purely because I suspected that it wasn’t going to live up to the hype. I’d heard that it was completely unique, ingenious magic system, realistic characters, blah blah blah.

But no! It’s not! Again, this book is fine. I liked the setting – the African-style background; I’ll accept that that was something a bit different. But the magic system is exactly the same as in a hundred different YA books! Honestly, it is no different! The characters are flat (I liked Amari but wanted to throttle the rest) and the plot is ridiculously generic. I just don’t understand what it is with this book.

I have seen this book everywhere, and everybody loves it. I’ve heard how emotionally scarring the end it, and how beautifully written it is, and how amazing the plot is. I mean… yeah, alright, the plot is pretty great. Fair enough.

But the pacing, writing, length and ending are all terrible.

‘Yes, Laini Taylor’s writing is pretty. It flows beautifully and much of it is very quotable. It holds up very nicely when compared to a lot of other similar novels. The problem is that it hides a lot of lazy plot development. Characters frequently ‘just knew what they had to do,’ or ‘suddenly realised what it all meant,’ and I wanted to beat my book against the table every time it happened.’

Have you read any of these books? Did they live up to the hype for you?